S Korea’s Dunamu Expands Crypto Exchange Upbit to Singapore

South Korean fintech company Dunamu Inc. is expanding its crypto-asset exchange business to Singapore.

The company said it chose Singapore as its first overseas destination and “launching pad” into foreign markets, citing the country’s strong support for blockchain and cryptocurrency.

The exchange, which will begin operations in October, will offer the same features as the South Korean platform including the ability to trade crypto-assets from Dunamu’s partner Bittrex, 24/7 real-time security monitoring, firewall system for enhanced security, and a fast and user-friendly mobile app.

Upbit mobile app

Dunamu established its new office in Singapore in February. Alex Kim, the former head of Kakao Indonesia and managing director of Path, which was bought by Kakao, heads the new company, called Upbit Singapore Pte. Ltd., serving as its CEO.

“Singapore has openly embraced blockchain technology and related businesses, so we believe operating an exchange here will naturally lead to great opportunities for us to pursue other projects in the blockchain sphere,” Kim said.

“It will also provide us with a strong starting point in diversifying our business and becoming more competitive globally. We are confident Upbit’s secure and convenient exchange service, combined with the ability to trade in Singapore dollars, as well Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT via Bittrex support will allow us to attract users and establish Upbit’s presence in the global market.”

In the future, Dunamu plans to add more fiat currencies and enter additional countries, notably in Southeast Asia. The company said it wants to take an upper hand in the budding global cryptocurrency industry.

“We felt the timing was right to expand globally despite various uncertainties surrounding the South Korean market,” said Sirgoo Lee, CEO of Dunamu.

“One of the key functions of a crypto-asset exchange is to connect the real economy to cryptocurrencies, and we believe we can provide this bridge between South Korea and the global market.”

An extraordinary session of the National Assembly was kicked off in August to discuss regulation and measures to promote the cryptocurrency industry alongside initial coin offerings (ICOs) guidelines to overturn the ongoing ban.

South Korea aims to promote blockchain technology but will strive to curb speculative transactions of cryptocurrencies, Yoon Suk-heun, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), said earlier this month.

The expansion of the Upbit brand into Singapore comes at a time when tech firms and cryptocurrency exchanges are joining the race to set up new exchanges in the region.

Line, the Japanese subsidiary of South Korean Internet giant Naver, opened its new cryptocurrency exchange BitBox in Singapore in July. South Korean platform Coinone launched operations in Indonesia last month.

Diana Ngo is a freelance fintech, blockchain news writer based in Cape Town, South Africa. She has worked for French- and English-language online publications, covering fintech, blockchain technology and digital currencies. Diana joined CoinJournal in June 2015. Contact her: diana@coinjournal.net.

Support CoinJournal

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for independent, niche websites such as CoinJournal to cover the costs of operating. While we do run limited amounts of advertising, we try not to bombard our readers with huge adverts across the site.

If you enjoy our content, want to see more of it and can afford it, please consider supporting the site.